CITIBANK GROUP TO GET THE PINEHURST RESORT

Special to the New York Times

Published: March 4, 1982

PINEHURST, N.C., March 3—
Pinehurst, the luxurious golfer's resort, rises out of the arid sand hills of south-central North Carolina like some desert oasis. Without warning, the bleak scrub brush landscape gives way to emerald fairways and vaulting pines.

And with a turn off Route 1 from Raleigh, one leaves behind the real North Carolina of struggling tobacco farms for a fantasy land of stately villas, a country village, and almost painfully consistent good taste.

Whether Pinehurst's tasteful traditions can survive is the present question. Documents are expected to be signed shortly to turn over the 87-year-old resort from its corporate owner of 12 years to an eight-bank consortium, led by New York's Citibank, which hopes eventually to resell it. The transaction involves assets of Pinehurst, valued at about $31 million, and an assumption of the corporate owner's $73 million debt.

Accordingly, some of the property owners here are wondering how Pinehurst's new banker owners will settle into this world of golf carts and quail hunts - and whether Pinehurst's expensive upkeep will be maintained.

At least one resident close to the recent negotiations had his doubts. ''You don't really run something,'' he said, ''unless you have a long-term commitment to it or are fond of it, none of which is the case with the banks. They don't want it and they don't want to put money into this thing. A lot of maintenance has been delayed and delayed and delayed.''

An official with the Chase Man-hattan Bank, which is in the consor-tium, disagreed. ''We have a whole laundry list of things we want to do,'' he said, ''from pumping stations to resodding the golf courses to a new roof on the hotel.''

''If there was going to be a fire sale, it would have already happened,'' said the official, who asked not to be identified. ''But the banks are committed to getting the price they want. And the way to do that is capital improvements in the resort neglected by the prior management.''

That management is the Purcell Company Inc. of Bay St. Louis, Miss. In 1978, Purcell - known then as the Diamondhead Corporation; it changed its name in August 1980 - recorded an operating loss of $11.2 million. It suffered net losses of $8.1 million in 1979 and $3.2 million in 1980. Since 1978, it has been unsuccessfully searching for a buyer.

''Obviously, Purcell has had some financial problems or it wouldn't be losing this asset,'' the Chase official said, referring to Pinehurst. An Offer to Creditors

In December 1978, Diamondhead was scheduled to start repaying installments on its two main debts -some $113.7 million based on loans secured by property at its six resorts throughout the Southeast. In January 1979, unable to meet its installments, the company went to its creditor banks and offered what it apparently considered its finest collateral. ''You could make an assumption that Pinehurst was the most valuable asset at the time,'' the Chase official said.

Artis James, Purcell's president, said, referring to the banks: ''They felt it was a premier resort.'' A deal was struck. Diamondhead's debt was consolidated in Pinehurst. Some $73 million of the debt was secured by the golf resort; an additional $10 million was classified as a direct loan to Diamondhead. And the remaining $30.7 million was cleared by Diamondhead's sale of its accounts receivable to the banks.

What the banks stood to gain - short of a buyer being found - was an option to purchase all Pinehurst stock on Dec. 1, 1981. Until then, Pinehurst stock was controlled - as about 83 percent of Purcell's two types of common stock is controlled - by a New York businessman, Malcolm P. McLean, founder of McLean Trucking, the nation's fourth-largest trucking company.

Mr. McLean, who advanced $2.5 million to Pinehurst, is to be repaid in installments. His company, McLean Securities Inc., is assuming $10 million of the Purcell loan from the banks.

In addition to Citibank and Chase, the banks in the group are: the First National Bank of Chicago; the Crocker National Bank; Wells Fargo Bank; the Wachovia Bank and Trust Company; the First Pennsylvania Bank, and the First National State Bank of New Jersey. Started by New Englander

Central to all this maneuvering is Pinehurst, a piece of North Carolina real estate that in 1895 captured the soul of a New Englander, James Walker Tufts, who had made his fortune by inventing the soda fountain. Mr. Tufts, according to a brochure, ''breathed deeply of the light fresh air and felt the mildness of the atmosphere.'' And then he decided to spend some money.

For $5,000 he bought 5,000 acres of scrub pine. Some 200,000 imported pines and shrubs later, he realized his retirement paradise. Golf entered the picture, according to local legend, when a dairy farmer complained that a hotel guest striking little white balls was brutalizing his cows. Mr. Tufts was intrigued.

Today, Pinehurst boasts six courses, the Hall of Fame Classic, and major stars of the game on its fairways. Its 10,000 acres - 4,500 undeveloped -also offers a recreation lake, a renovated Victorian hotel, 2,400 homes and 600 condominiums - all luxurious, all privately owned. The village of 1,700 split from Purcell in 1980 by incorporating. Local business, shopkeepers say, is booming.

So why over four years has no buyer been found? Were there any serious negotiations from 1978 to 1981? ''Purcell says there were,'' the Chase official said cryptically. Mr. James, Purcell's president, explained: ''There was never a figure from any party as to what they would pay.'' The Sheraton Corporation, he said, looked but backed off. No serious shopper was found.

Nowadays, banks are not uncomfortable in the resort business, the Chase official said. ''Over the last 10 years, banks have bought bowling alleys, resorts, condo projects, land -anything you can name,'' he said, ''because there have been significant problems in real estate.'' And Mr. James said, ''I don't think it's in the best interests of any bank to not maintain its collateral.''

All of this should calm whatever worry residents may feel about the future. Meanwhile, their biggest problem, beyond what iron to choose on the fairway, seems to be handling growth.

Forget the issue of resort ownership, one woman said as she climbed into her Lincoln Continental. The real problem, she said, is growth - there are simply too many people finding their way to this oasis.

Her husband turned the key in the ignition, and she seemed to look for a way to close off this paradise forever, not from the banks or the hotel chains but from people just like herself. ''Tell them it's hot as hell here in July,'' she laughed, driving off.